Happy 5th Birthday, Judith!

It's a day late, but things have been crazy around here this past week, so I didn't have a chance to log on and create a post yesterday.

I can't believe how fast time is flying! In a few short months, we'll be looking at starting transitional meetings with the school district for Judith, and facing kindergarten registration. I also realized that I've hit a point where I realize how small Judith really was at birth, and remember the NICU, but some things are starting to become a bit hazy; the memories are refreshed when I look at her pictures, but at this point, it's not something I think about as regularly, probably because of how big she's getting, and also the general passage of time that tends to cause memories to blur.

It's an exciting time right now. I really love this age, and the primary grades were always among my favorites to teach. I absolutely love when I'm able to get a subbing assignment that involves general music for the primary grades! Judith has some differences from other kids her age, but one thing she doesn't lack is the enthusiasm for various things in the world around her, and she loves to learn new things (even though she tends to forget a lot of stuff relatively quickly). She says some of the funniest stuff, and often has us laughing at her commentary.

Judith certainly has her favorite things: the dogs, Legos, Shopkins, My Little Pony, Minions, Play Doh, books, animals, and Olivia (from the series of books by Ian Falconer). She has plenty of things she dislikes, and doesn't hesitate to make it known.

Happy birthday, Judith!

Judith Is 4!

A couple months ago, I was thinking about party plans because I knew Judith's birthday was coming up, but time really flew by, and here we are. Each birthday has been interesting emotionally, but this year I didn't have my normal thoughts about all of the events that led up to Judith's birth,save for 1 moment on Monday when I commented that the weather did the same freaky thing that it did exactly 4 years ago to the day: unusually warm temperatures in the mid-60s with rain.

The last couple of days, though, I had a mind blowing realization that helped put some things in perspective. At her last weigh in, Judith was 32 lbs. I'm not sure what her current weight is since we did not have her well child visit yet, but regardless, that means she is at least 16 times her birthweight. 16 times! Considering how much she's struggled with weight gain from day 1, having that figure sink in made me realize how far she has come in the last 4 years. Yes, the road has been frustrating, to say the least, but today I could put aside the stress and frustration over getting her to and maintaining a good weight for her health and celebrate her progress!

4 years ago, it was hard to imagine the future, even one as "close" as today. We were so focused on her survival and obtaining the ultimate goal of discharge from the NICU that I never imagined I'd have this sassy, funny preschooler who loves to talk, who is obsessed with Thomas & Friends and VeggieTales, and is such a bundle of energy who wears me out by dinner time each day. There is still a long, long road ahead of her, and many battles left to fight, both with some lingering preemie issues and with CF, but for today we pushed all of that aside and focused on her accomplishments and who she has developed into.

Happy 4th birthday, Judith!

Happy 3rd Birthday Judith!

If you are new to our blog and are unfamiliar with Judith's birth story, you can read it here


Judith,

Time is going way too fast, and I can't believe I'm writing your 3rd birthday post!  You have come such a long, long way from the little 2 lb 14.25" 29 weeker who barely fit into the tiny extra small preemie diapers, and are now an approximately 25 lb very active preschooler who talks nonstop and loves your doggies, baby dolls, Sofia the First/Disney princesses in general, and Doc McStuffins!  The challenges you have overcome in 3 short years is amazing.

You are our little warrior, and have not lost your urge to fight, which is something that will continue to be in your favor as you face the long road ahead of you with your battle against CF.  I know you've been through so much in 3 years, but your feisty nature helps you overcome the challenges.

Last year at this time, you were still having a language explosion and were adding new words to your vocabulary.  This year, you're still adding new words, but they're much bigger words (like stethoscope), you're stringing together big and complex sentences, and your imagination is taking off!  You know your basic shapes, colors, and your entire alphabet.  You can count to 12 (even if you skip or mix up the numbers here and there), and, thanks to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, you're starting to learn how to count by 10s.  You love your books, and you love to sit on the couch and page through them, identifying the letters you see.  You're not as fond of sitting and being read to as you were in the past, but we're hoping this is a passing phase and you'll go back to wanting to sit on our laps to hear a good story.

You're starting to get very social, even though you try to play shy sometimes.  You made a new, good friend at church who is your age.  You enjoy playing with your second cousins, and your big cousin Kora (you like your other cousins too, but they're older and I don't think you quite know how to play with them since they play rougher than you're used to).  You like to talk to the dogs, and try to play with them every day.  You're learning how to feed them, and love helping your Daddy prepare their dinners every night!

You love watching Disney Pixar movies, and especially love the movie Tangled.  Every day you get excited to watch shows on Disney Jr., but especially love Sofia the First, Doc McStuffins, and Minnie's Bowtoons.  You love to play instruments, and will often serenade me on the piano throughout the day.  Whenever we go somewhere, you often have a baby doll in tow.  You absolutely love to make trips to Hersheypark and ride as many rides as you can, and also enjoy making trips to the playground!

I can't believe that I can start calling you a preschooler now.  You're certainly not a baby anymore, but you're no longer a toddler, either.  In other words, you're growing up way too fast!

Happy birthday, Judith!

Happy Birthday, Judith!!!

It's hard to believe that another year has flown by, and Judith is already 2 years old.  If you're a new reader/follower of my blog, you can find the link to Judith's birth story on the right with the rest of our pages.

This is going to be a slight adjustment for us.  Symbolically, I'll be shedding the preemie tickers here on the blog and in the online forums I participate in.  Realistically, we're now in that unfamiliar, uncharted territory of putting so much of her "preemie-ness" behind us.  I'm sure I've mentioned it before: it's defined so much of our lives for the last 2 years, and while it's time to move past so many of those things because she's overcome them, it'll still be a big part of who Judith is and her whole story.

I'm feeling more excited this year about her birthday than last year.  The cloud of uncertainty from CF still hangs over us, and I realize that her breaths may be numbered.  BUT... over the last year with the FDA approval of Kalydeco and the progression of the studies for VX-809, I feel like there is more hope for her to eventually have a long and normal life.  Coupled with the fact that she has done relatively well over the past year with the CF (save for the pseudomonas infection), has made incredible progress with her milestones, and is practically caught up, I feel like we have even more to celebrate and be thankful for!

Now, without further ado, Judith's birthday letter!:


Happy 2nd birthday, Judith!  This year went by really, really fast, and you've made so much progress!  Mommy, Daddy, Buster, and Lady are very proud of you!

Since I wrote your 21 month post, a lot of different things happened:

* You had a massive language explosion, and are adding at least 20 words a week to your vocabulary.  Most of them aren't consistent and unprompted, but you're getting there.

* Believe it or not, we had another hurricane hit our area this fall.  Hurricane Sandy was worse wind-wise than the storms last year, but we didn't experience as much flooding.  You handled everything well, and didn't get scared by the howling winds.

* As a result of Hurricane Sandy, we had to postpone your fall CF Clinic appointment.  Dr. G. was ok with waiting a month and a half when an appointment was available, so we have a visit coming in a couple weeks.  You'll be getting your annual labs done.  Sorry, kiddo.

* You had 2 MRSA infections that sucked massively.  I know it was painful for you to have the abscesses drained, and I feel bad that you had to go through that.  Fingers crossed, it looks like we got rid of it after the 2nd round, and you haven't shown symptoms since.

* Your second Halloween came and went.  You dressed up as a flower this year, and loved your costume!  The only trick or treating we did was with your grandparents and great-grandparents and at Daddy's work because we weren't sure if our town was still holding trick or treat night due to the hurricane.

* You experienced your first major election!  You charmed the pants off the poll workers, and were fascinated with all of the buttons (and watching Mommy push them).

* You got your first pair of glasses!  Your eye doctor thought it would be best to go ahead and start correcting your vision now, and the difference has been remarkable.  Once you realized you could see better, your fine motor skills with certain things improved greatly, and you really started taking off!

* You got to meet one of your cousins and your aunt and uncle for the first time at Thanksgiving!

* You are absolutely in love with Buster and Lady.  You love to play with Lady, and ask them for kisses (which they're more than happy to give, especially if you have some leftover food on your face). You've been learning how to be gentle, and have been doing well.


Judith's 2 Year Stats
Adjusted Age (one last time): 1 year, 9 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days

Weight and Length: I don't have current updates.  You have your well baby and clinic appointments coming up, so we'll get your stats then.

Hair & Eye Color: No major changes with your hair.  It's growing, but very slowly.  Your eyes are more brown than hazel.

Teeth: Still waiting on those 2 year molars to pop through!

Clothing: 12-18 month

Diapers: No changes, still in size 4's

Diet & Nutrition: If we had no idea you were a toddler based off your age, we'd be able to figure it out very quickly based on your eating habits.  You are super picky, and really won't eat much of anything these days.  Once we discuss this with your nutritionist and your doctor at clinic, we should have a better idea if it's just a toddler phase or if something else is up.  I'm glad you enjoy your Pediasure, and are drinking at least 32 oz of that every day.  Right now some calories are better than none, but you're really making us pull our hair out with frustration when you refuse to eat!

Developmental Milestones:  I thought you had a language explosion when I wrote your last month birthday post.  Holy smokes, was I in for a surprise, and realized that what you were doing was nothing compared to what you would do over the next 3 months!  Like I said earlier, you're adding at least 20 new words a week, and some weeks you've added 50 or more.  You never cease to amaze us and make us laugh with some of the crazy, completely random words that you pull out of nowhere (and repeat often; example: Ahoy!).  This is really the last area that you needed to catch up in, and we think you're there, if not past where you should be.

Happy birthday, sweet girl!  We're so proud of how far you've come, and we love you very much!

Now That Judith's 1

There are a lot of new and exciting things happening!

First, though, some pictures from Judith's party on Saturday (these are all smash cupcake pics):

Judith's party was good.  She was cranky (a combination of teething, barely napping, and overstimulation), but she did enjoy herself in that way that a 1 year old can.  She got some cute outfits, lots of toys, her own Nativity set, some books, and an Anywhere Chair from Pottery Barn Kids!  The following day (Sunday), she had worship appointments put in at my parents' church in honor of her birthday, and her grandparents, John, & I sponsored the altar flowers at our church - she had 4 beautiful bouquets sitting on the altars, and we got to bring one from our church home.  :)

We're going through some big changes right now.  One of the biggest is she's graduating from formula to Pediasure.  I have 1 can of Neosure left that I just opened this morning, and once that's gone we're done with it!  She needs to be on the Pediasure to keep her calorie consumption up, and thank God that our insurance and her MA will pick up the tab because that stuff's EXPENSIVE (we're talking close to 10 bucks for a 6 pack), and for her it's considered a medical necessity.  I have bad memories of that stuff from when I used to volunteer at S. June Smith center years ago - one of the kids had to drink it, and it smelled so nasty!  It's definitely improved over the years, and now it kind of smells like a McDonald's milkshake.  Anyway, that's going to be her new primary liquid source, and a medical supply company will be delivering it to our door monthly.

I'm still working with her on the sippy cup.  Saturday she took a whole ounce of Pediasure, and I was so excited!  We're making progress, but it's extremely slow progress.  It reminds me a lot of the struggles we went through in the NICU trying to get her to nipple feed, and just like then we'll have to wait for whatever it is to click in her mind before she really takes off with the sippy.

On top of all of these changes, I need to come up with new, possibly creative ways to get Judith's daily salt amount into her.  One thing I'm grateful for is that we don't have to make this transition during the summer months - since it's cooler, she's not going to lose salt as quickly, but we still need to make sure she gets enough to replace what she is losing.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Little Miracle!

It's your big day, peanut!  You are 1 year old today, and you've come so far in the past year!  We are so proud of you, and of your accomplishments!  You are already growing up so fast!

Judith's 1 year (12 month) Stats:


Adjusted Age: 9 months, 2 weeks, 3 days

Weight:  16 lbs 15 oz (about 8.5 times more than you weighed at birth!)

Length: 27" (you grew 12.75" since you were born!)

Hair & Eye Color: You are starting to grow more hair, and it's still a nice reddish-brown color.  Your eyes are getting more and more brown color in them every day!


Teeth: 3.5 - 1 tooth is almost through the gum, so that's your "half" tooth haha!  You have the 2 bottom teeth that you've had for a while, and just before Thanksgiving you cut the upper front left tooth.  More teeth are queued up under your gums and are ready to make their journey through.


Clothing: You are in a bizarre in-between stage.  You need 6-9m pants and sleepers, but the waist is huge on you.  You can wear 3-6m tops and onesies comfortably.  Your shoe size (when you actually wear and keep shoes on your feet) is a size 2.

Diaper Size: Still in size 3!

Meals: You are on all table foods, and love to feed yourself!  You will allow Mommy to feed you yogurt, but you do like to grab the spoon and try to feed yourself with it.  You take about 20 oz of Neosure every day, but that will change very soon - you will get to try some whole milk, and you will start taking supplements of Pediasure daily.  Most of your liquids are from bottles, but you are learning how to use a straw sippy cup.

Developmental Milestones: You regularly pull yourself up at everything you can.  You can climb the stairs, and you are trying to cruise around rooms.  You learned how to wave, and enjoy waving at the "baby in the mirror."  You can give kisses back when someone kisses your cheek.  You love to babble, and you study everything you can!


Happy birthday, sweet little miracle!

T-Minus 6 Days

It's officially less than a week until Judith is 1.  Less than a week before I no longer have a baby, but a toddler.

Things have been insane around here since Thanksgiving.  We had a great holiday - the Wednesday before we spent the night at my parents' house, and went to church in the evening.  My "other" church hosted the conference-turned-semi-community service, and I played with the brass group (that's the 2nd time in about a month that my trombone has been played, and it's still trying to figure out what hit it - thank goodness it didn't shrivel up once it saw the light of day!).  Thursday John, Judith, & I drove to see John's parents and one of his brothers, and we had breakfast with them.  Turkey dinner was later that day, with my parents and grandmother.

Judith had her first tastes of some Thanksgiving foods, minus the turkey; she doesn't handle meats well, and I'm honestly waiting until she has more teeth (I'd ideally like to hold off until she has molars, based off of some good advice I was given a while back) before really trying meats with her.  Despite the meatless meal, Judith really enjoyed herself!  Mashed potatoes were an especially big hit:

We even put some gravy on them, figuring it would be a good high-calorie option for her.  She didn't seem to be a big fan.  Silly kid.

The rest of the weekend was spent shopping and preparing some things for Judith's upcoming birthday and party.  We have our paper goods & decorations, and yesterday I finished her pictures for our photo wall.  I feel a thousand times better knowing this is done!  I need to find my Pampered Chef easy decorator and wash it so it's ready to go for cupcake decoration, and there are a few small loose ends that we'll need to take care of, but otherwise we're in good shape!


We have another CF Clinic appointment, and it will be the first one with Judith's new doctor.  I have a big list of questions I'm taking with me this time, and hopefully we can get some answers.  I'm so curious to see how long she is, and how much she weighs!  Next week she'll have her 1 year well-baby visit with her regular pediatrician, and that means shots.  I'm seriously contemplating delaying one of them until her 15 month appointment since she's getting her Synagis injections at this appointment as well - I don't want to stick her too many times, and I'm wary of overloading her system too much.  Load these appointments on top of crazy rehearsal schedules to get ready for building dedication at my "other" church, PT changes (since we'll be at clinic during her normal therapy time), and general holiday preparations, I may go nuts.

I am excited that Judith has a new tooth!  Her upper front left tooth made an appearance over the holiday, and it's steadily working its way through her gum.  It'll be a while before it's fully in, but at least it cut through.  She's still teething like crazy though, and there are at least 2-3 other teeth lined up, preparing to come out.  I'm not surprised that she's cutting a bunch at once, but she's also been super cranky because of it - these teeth had better come out quickly for everyone's sake!

1 Year Pictures & Random Party/Holiday Stuff

I know this is the 10,000,000,000th time some of you have seen these, but I'm AWing all over the place, so skip this part if you don't want to look again.  ;)

I got Judith's pictures!  Here's a sampling of the shots:

Judith is such a ham!

Party prep will be in full swing once we get through Thanksgiving.  My mom & I decided to make the cupcakes instead of buying them.  I'm glad I have a reason to use the Pampered Chef easy decorator that I got a couple years ago and haven't taken out of the box yet (you can guess how often I get the chance to bake, let alone do fancy decorating).  I need to get the rest of my pics loaded to Shutterfly, and send them to Target for printing so I can make her photo timeline.  Paper products and decorations need to be bought.  Thank goodness we decided to nix the idea of an organized theme and are keeping things super basic - I'm not a very crafty person, and I'll be the first to admit that I keep putting all of this off to deny the fact that my baby won't really be a baby anymore in just under 2 weeks.

On top of all of this, John & I decided we want to do Christmas cards after all this year.  I need to dress up the peanut, get the dogs positioned, quickly put Judith down, and pray everyone stays in their spot for more than .5 seconds so I can snap a good shot.  I'm definitely not crazy enough to attempt this alone, which means I'll have to wait for John to be here and we'll have to do it in the evening.  I need to get this done, and I want to have everything created and ordered by the end of the week so my neurotic self is sure that people will get the cards in time.  This whole process will be interesting to say the least.